Digital storytelling is a wonderful way to embed technology, creativity, and student participation into lesson plans. Vanessa (2008) states, “Digital storytelling incorporates a variety of multimedia such as audio narration, music, video, and still images to tell a story.” Students can collaborate to decide on the content of their story, set up the roles for the group, sequence the steps needed to complete the project, and go to work! Kindergarten children are creative because most have not developed a fear of failing. Once taught proper handling of digital cameras and video cameras, children would love the chance to be the directors of their own story.
I have not tried this out in my classroom yet, but I plan to start with a discussion of items that would make a great movie. We could brainstorm together on chart paper so that learners could later use the list as a reference to choose their theme. We could start with ideas such as: shapes around us, friend addition/subtraction, and the ABC’s of Woodward Mill Elementary School. I’m sure the students would have many more ideas to add to our list.
I would send a small group of students with a teacher to find the location that suites their story. I would let them make the decisions and just follow behind to assist as necessary as they film their story.
The students would learn by creating their movie, but also by watching the movies of their classmates. Children love to share and learn from one another. They would all feel empowered because the students that may not be able to write their thoughts on paper yet could still express their thoughts in words and actions. This would later give them the confidence to transfer their thoughts to letter sounds and later words.
References
Vanessa. (2008, March 29). Digital Storytelling. Message posted to Inside Pre-K: http://blogs.preknow.org/insideprek/2008/03/digital-storyte.html
Jill, I am so impressed by the spelling in song that these students are doing! What a wonderfully fun way to learn. I would imagine this being loaded as a podcast and used for future teacher training, parent study with their kids, and student remediation throughout the year as needed! Way to go with Web 2.0! (I know, I know... but the video just got me into the rhyming!)
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